Mr F and I have returned from our holiday, which was a bit of a nostalgia trip; partly because half of it saw us meeting up with family and friends in my home town and going around the old familiar places, but partly because it was all done in our 1933 Austin Seven Box Saloon (which, should you feel inclined, you can stitch in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry) and included a rally in the north of the country for which we dressed the part. Although this was much appreciated by the spectators, it has its drawbacks. It is not easy to eat the local sticky sugar bread and salted herring we were offered at the various staging posts (not together, I hasten to say) while wearing delicate crocheted gloves…

One of the many nice things on this holiday was coming across various bits of needlework, sometimes unexpectedly: one day we went for lunch at a pancake restaurant situated in an apple, pear and cherry orchard, which has a farm shop attached. While browsing the various fruit juices and locally produced cakes and biscuits I spotted a poster for a small exhibition of sewing and needlework in the next village. That Saturday, which was National Mill Day, I hired a bicycle and cycled there, only to find that the History Society hosting the exhibition was housed next to the local windmill, so I got a working windmill and local brass band as well as a historic sampler and lace caps!

Another find was this pulpit hanging adorning the church of Hindeloopen, a harbour town in the north of The Netherlands. It is not very elaborate, with only small touches of gold and silver and worked in what looks like full threads of stranded cotton in a variety of fairly basic stitches (including an effective use of twisted chain stitch), but no less lovely with its bright colours and beautiful symbolism.

You may wonder whether all this needlework inspired me to pick up the projects I’d brought with me. Well, it did – much to my own surprise I finished one of the two Victoria Sampler kits and got well over half of the second one done. Quite my best holiday stitching result in years!

So some de-stashing has happened – the second kit has meanwhile been finished as well and both will be turned into cards which by their very nature will eventually leave our house – but I’m not sure what to do with the kits themselves. There is quite a bit of thread etc. left, and of course the charts; I will have to find a good home for those. And then there is re-stashing.

Just before going on holiday I got the Melbury Hill newsletter, which mentioned their new kit in celebration of the Coronation. The design centres around the most endearing Cavalier King Charles spaniel, and I fell in love. I showed it to Mr Mabel who decided I hadn’t had an unbirthday present for far too long, and a day or two later this arrived:

I’ve written to Melbury Hill because although I understand that colours on screen can be inaccurate, I felt the ones for the dog were very different even from the printed photograph of the stitched model included in the kit, but apparently they are the thread colours she used so the discrepancy is down to photography and printing. I also asked about part of the stitch instructions which I felt might be confusing to someone not too experienced in needlework, but I haven’t heard back about that – I’ll let you know as and when I do.

Further re-stashing came in the form of bulk threads for the Wildflower Garden and Shisha kits – an excusable purchase, I think – as well as some Madeira silk and Soie Ovale for my RSN Canvaswork module. Don’t the flat silks look scrumptious? It won’t surprise you that they are intended for one of the tulips.

And finally, a case of re-stashing to de-stash (or so I tell myself). A fellow member of a stitching forum asked for the colour key to Teresa Wentzler’s Needle Guardian (now discontinued), which had been chewed by her puppy. I was almost certain I’d purchased that design years ago, and in fact I bought the Dinky Dyes overdyed cotton and Kreinik variegated metallic braid to stitch it, but never got round to it. I found the chart, sent my fellow stitcher the colour key, and was reminded how much I liked the design. So from my stash I got together all the threads and beads, plus a piece of opalescent Lugana; a blingy dragon can always use more bling! There was one shade of DMC, however, which I lent to someone years ago and through various circumstances had never got back. That would need to be ordered. And originally I had bought the Dinky Dyes cotton because the silk was too expensive. But it seemed silly to order just one skein of DMC. So the Dinky Dyes silk was added. And for the same postage I could add a few more threads. So two Caron Waterlilies joined the shopping basket. I haven’t got a particular purpose for them yet but they go really well with another, lighter variegated green that I already have…

And so it continues .